Citation, commencement, application and interpretation
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the School Finance (England) Regulations 2012 and come into force on 15th March 2012.
(2) These Regulations apply in relation to the financial year beginning on 1st April 2012.
(3) These Regulations apply only in relation to England.
(4) In these Regulations—
“the 1996 Act” means the Education Act 1996(1);
“the 1998 Act” means the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;
“the 2000 Act” means the Learning and Skills Act 2000(2);
“the 2002 Act” means the Education Act 2002;
“the 2005 Act” means the Education Act 2005(3);
“the 2006 Act” means the Education and Inspections Act 2006(4);
“the 2009 Act” means the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009(5);
“the 2011 Regulations” means the School Finance (England) Regulations 2011(6);
“admission number” means the number of pupils in any relevant age group intended to be admitted in any school year as determined or, where the context requires, proposed to be determined by an admission authority in accordance with section 88D of the 1998 Act;
“advanced skills teacher” is defined in section 2 of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2011 and Guidance on School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions(7);
“capital expenditure” means expenditure of a local authority which falls to be capitalised in accordance with proper practices, or expenditure treated as capital expenditure by virtue of any regulations or directions made under section 16 of the Local Government Act 2003(8);
“CRC” means the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme operated by the Environment Agency;
“central expenditure” means the total amount deducted by a local authority from their schools budget in accordance with regulation 7;
“CERA” means capital expenditure which an authority expect to charge to a revenue account of the authority within the meaning of section 22 of the Local Government Act 2003;
“children in need” means children in respect of whom the local authority in whose area they reside must provide a range and level of services appropriate to their needs under section 17 of the Children Act 1989(9);
“combined service” is a service funded partly from central expenditure, and partly from other budgets of the authority or contributions from other bodies;
“Dedicated Schools Grant” is a grant of that name paid to a local authority by the Secretary of State under section 14 of the 2002 Act;
a reference to a determination or redetermination of a budget share or amount to be allocated is for the funding period, unless otherwise stated;
“early years provision” has the meaning assigned to it in section 20 of the Childcare Act 2006(10);
“expenditure on the schools specific contingency” is central expenditure deducted for the purpose of ensuring that monies are available to enable increases in a school’s budget share after it has been allocated where it subsequently becomes apparent that—
a governing body have incurred expenditure which it would be unreasonable to expect them to meet from the school’s budget share,
an increase in the school’s budget share is due in accordance with the local authority’s formula,
a determination or redetermination of the school’s budget share authorised by the schools forum or the Secretary of State has led to such an increase, or
such an increase is necessary to correct errors,
and where such circumstances were unforeseen when initially determining the school’s budget share;
“funding period” means the financial year beginning on 1st April 2012;
“gifted and talented pupils” means pupils in primary or secondary schools identified as such by a local authority by virtue of the fact that they are demonstrating, or have the potential to develop, ability in one or more subjects, leadership skills or organisational skills at a level significantly ahead of other children in their year group;
“institution within the further education sector” has the meaning given in section 91(3) of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992(11);
“key stage 4” means the fourth key stage of the National Curriculum for England comprising the requirements and entitlements described in sections 85 and 85A of the 2002 Act(12);
“local authority’s formula” has the meaning in regulation 9;
a reference (however framed) to a maintained nursery school, a community, foundation or voluntary school or a community or foundation special school includes a proposed school which, on implementation of proposals for the establishment of the school, will be such a school, and which has a temporary governing body;
a reference to a particular class or description of expenditure in relation to maintained schools and to pupils registered at such schools includes such expenditure of that class or description as the authority may incur in relation to Academies, and to pupils registered at Academies;
“non-domestic rate” has the meaning given in section 54 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988(13);
“PFI scheme unitary payment” means a charge payable by a local authority under a private finance transaction, as defined in regulation 16 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) Regulations 1997(14);
“practical and applied learning” means education provided to pupils at key stage 4 in a secondary school or elsewhere which prepares them for employment or for a qualification related to a particular employment sector;
“prescribed early years provision” means early years provision prescribed for the purposes of section 7(1) of the Childcare Act 2006;
“previous funding period” means the financial year beginning on 1st April 2011;
“primary or secondary school” means a primary or secondary school which is a community, foundation, voluntary or maintained nursery school;
“proper practices” means those accounting practices which a local authority are required to follow by virtue of any enactment, or which, so far as they are consistent with any such enactment are generally regarded, whether by reference to any generally recognised published code or otherwise, as proper accounting practices to be followed in the keeping of the accounts of local authorities, either generally or of the description concerned(15);
“provider”, in relation to prescribed early years provision, may be a governing body of a school or a relevant early years provider;
“prudential borrowing” means borrowing money for the purpose of facilitating the modernisation and rationalisation of the school estate, where the revenue savings that will be achieved are equal to or more than the expenditure that will be incurred in borrowing the money;
“pupil premium” means the amount allocated by a local authority from the pupil premium grant to a school in respect of each registered pupil at that school who is entitled to it under the terms and conditions of the grant;
“pupil premium grant” is a grant of that name paid to a local authority by the Secretary of State under section 14 of the 2002 Act in respect of pupils who are entitled to a pupil premium;
“relevant early years provider” means a provider of prescribed early years provision, other than the governing body of a maintained school;
“relevant early years provision” means prescribed early years provision provided by a relevant early years provider;
“school year” has the meaning given in section 579(1) of the 1996 Act(16);
a reference to “special educational needs transport costs”, for the purposes of paragraph 36(e) of Schedule 2, is a reference to the costs of home to school transport for pupils with special educational needs in schools maintained by a local authority where the authority are meeting such costs because the revenue savings that will be achieved by placing such children in a school maintained by them are equal to, or greater than, the cost of such transport;
“sixth form grant” means a grant of that name paid to a local authority by the YPLA under section 61 of the 2009 Act or the Secretary of State under section 14 of the 2002 Act in respect of sixth form pupils, on condition that it is passed on to a particular school;
“specific grant” means any grant (other than the Dedicated Schools Grant or any sixth form grant) paid to a local authority under conditions which impose restrictions on the particular purposes for which the grant may be used;
“summer term” means the third term of the school year where a school has three terms, or the fifth and sixth terms where a school has six terms;
a reference to “termination of employment costs”, for the purposes of paragraph 36(b) of Schedule 2, is a reference to expenditure relating to the dismissal or premature retirement of, or for the purpose of securing the resignation of, any person employed in a maintained school;
“unavoidable costs” means costs which must be incurred by virtue of a statutory requirement;
“YPLA” is the Young People’s Learning Agency for England(17).
(5) In these Regulations, a reference to “a mainstreamed grant” means a specific grant which was merged into the Dedicated Schools Grant for the financial year commencing 1st April 2011 but was paid to local authorities by the Secretary of State as a separate grant under section 14 of the 2002 Act, in addition to the Dedicated Schools Grant, for the financial year commencing 1st April 2010 and includes any of the following grants—
(a)School Standards Grant,
(b)School Standards Grant (Personalisation),
(c)School Development Grant (Standards Fund only),
(d)School Lunch Grant,
(e)Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG),
(f)1-2-1 Tuition Grant,
(g)Extended Schools – Sustainability Grant,
(h)Extended Schools – Subsidy Grant,
(i)Targeted Support for the Primary National Strategy allocated to schools (consisting of Universal and Targeted elements, Every Child elements, Leading Teachers element, Early Years Foundation Stage element and Modern Foreign Languages element),
(j)Targeted Support for the Secondary National Strategy allocated to schools (consisting of Universal and Targeted elements and Leading Teachers element),
(k)Diploma Formula Grant,
(l)London Pay Addition Grant.
S.I. 2011/371, as amended by S.I.2011/778.
This document is referred to in S.I. 2011/1917 and can be found at www.education.gov.uk.
2003 c.26. Regulations made under this section in relation to England are the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/3146, as amended by S.I. 2004/534, 2004/3055 and 2007/573).
Sections 85 and 85A were substituted for section 85, as originally enacted, by section 74(1) of the 2006 Act.
S.I. 1997/319. These Regulations have lapsed but article 11 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) (Consequential, Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/533) contains a savings provision for regulation 16 of the 1997 Regulations.
This definition is taken from section 21 of the Local Government Act 2003 and regulation 31 of the Local Government (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/3146).
Section 57(1) of, and paragraph 43 of Schedule 7 to, the Education Act 1997 (c.44) inserted this definition.
The YPLA was abolished by section 66 of the Education Act 2011 (c.21). Section 66 is due to be commenced on 1st April 2012.